Power to the People!

I am feeling rather pleased right now. On Thursday lunchtime I got an unexpected Email from Bexley Council Licensing Department. I had been chasing them, as I had not received a written invitation to the next Council planning meeting, which was scheduled for Monday the 24^th March. It turns out the council did send me a letter, but to completely the wrong address! My keenness to attend the next planning meeting was not through any deep and abiding interest in the minutiae of local planning legislation, but because the meeting was convened to discuss the application for the Manor Road KFC to open 24 hours a day, seven days a week. You may recall that I have written extensively on both my own, and united local opposition to this plan over the last couple of months. It transpires that the planning meeting was cancelled, as the franchisees of the KFC had got wind of the feelings of local people and their antipathy to the change in opening hours, and they have now withdrawn the licence application completely. Just for once, the public have won against a faceless global corporation! I am of the opinion that the shop owners realised that they could end up in a very long legal fight over the change in opening hours – this would be very expensive with no guarantee of a win at the end of it. I think they took the pragmatic attitude that the cost of fighting the legal case might exceed any short term increase in profit that 24/7 operation might bring. Thank you to everyone who involved themselves in the opposition – I won't name names, as I know some people would like to remain anonymous, but just for once we have victory, and a win for common sense, peace and quiet. Just in case you are doubtful that KFC would have withdrawn from the fight so readily, here is the proof - the letter of confirmation of licence application withdrawal I received from Bexley Licensing Officer Linda Bell. Click on the image for a larger version.

Many column inches have been taken up in both the national and local press this week over the “surprise” news about the new Ebbsfleet garden city that the Chancellor announced during the budget on Tuesday. As regular readers will note, I wrote in some detail about the then proposed project back in October 2012. It seemed obvious that if the Paramount Theme Park was to go ahead, then a new town would need to be built close by in order to house the park workers. Ebbsfleet and the surrounding areas are very poorly serviced in respect of housing at present, and the concept of a dedicated new town certainly holds water. I anticipate that accessibility problems may need to be addressed. A road link across the Thames would need to be constructed to avoid even more of a bottle – neck at the QEII bridge / tunnel at Dartford. Rail links at Ebbsfleet are good, if very expensive if one intends to regularly commute into London. I anticipate that many people moving to the town will be looking for more local work, so this may well be moot. I have seen several arguments which say that new towns are needed elsewhere, especially in the North. I don’t personally dispute this – I think the UK could do with half a dozen new towns dotted all over the place. The bottom line, however is that London and the South East are where the financial and business action is concentrated, and thought must also be given to the proximity to Europe. Paramount did not select Northfleet for its new theme park on the ground of aesthetics (the place is full of old gravel pits, and is currently somewhat of an eyesore).  They chose it as the area has excellent road and rail connections, is only forty minutes or so by rail from the coast, and is on the rail route to London. It also helps that the land in and around Northfleet is dirt cheap brown field stuff that would be excellent for a change of use as a theme park. People who complain about the potential traffic congestion that a large influx of new residents will do to North Kent should consider the huge number or well paid, permanent jobs the developments will bring – initially in construction and associated support services (the builders will need to eat, for example) and later all manner of trades and professions will be required to run the theme park. When I mentioned this to one local a few weeks ago, I got the response “But I don’t want to work in a furry character suit!” The reality will be that whilst suitable individuals will be required to dress up in character costumes, these will in a tiny minority. Most of the jobs involved in running a theme park are in areas like facilities – cleaners, repair engineers, project managers, electricians, administrators, security and the like – and these will no doubt have a wide appeal. The Paramount Park and the Ebbsfleet garden city will, if properly developed and run, be a huge benefit to the entire region in terms of economic activity. The one thing that does concern me over the town will be the price of property – if it is too high, the whole project could wither on the branch. Local workers at the Paramount Park and surrounding businesses are likely to be on the low to middle incomes; there is no point in having half million pound homes in the town, if the average wage is in the region of £20 - £30K range. Developers will need to be realistic regarding their target market for this to work. Other parts of the country need the same, but the spur to building a new town is the availability of work for those that are going to live there – this is where Ebbsfleet / Northfleet win out. The place is in the right spot at the right time.

It has been a while since I last had a really good whinge. I am about to make up for it now. I recently got a copy of “Bexley Magazine” posted through my door. If you have not seen the publication, it is a glossy, expensive looking, full colour A4 sized quarterly magazine that is produced by Bexley Council, ostensibly to inform residents as to what is going on in their borough. All well and good you might think. Unfortunately the editorial policy of the magazine seems to have been set by the spiritual successor to Joseph Goebbels or Vyacheslav Molotov, as it presents an incredibly one sided, biased and inaccurate view of activities of Bexley Council. I normally leave detailed criticism of Bexley Council to Malcolm Knight of Bexley is Bonkers, as he does a far better job of it that I could ever hope to do - this is not to say that all councillors or employees of the council are useless,; this is patently not the case - as the results of the planning issue with KFC can prove. The editors of Bexley Magazine on the other hand have a obvious and blatant bias in their writing. Here is a direct quotation from the Spring edition of "Bexley Magazine", which I will deconstruct afterwards. “Bexley takes food safety very seriously. It is the duty of food businesses to comply with food safety law, and it is in the best interests of businesses and consumers for high standards to be maintained at all times. There are a large number of businesses in the borough where, following inspections, food hygiene has been found to be satisfactory and many that are rated good or very good. This means that the businesses achieve a food hygiene rating of 3,4, or 5. The Council works hard with businesses that receive poor ratings to provide coaching and support. Where necessary it also takes enforcement action to ensure consumers are protected. Ratings are based on what the inspector finds when they visit. Improvements the business may make cannot be reflected in a higher rating in the next inspection, and this cannot take place for at least three months”. All this coming from the borough that has the worst "Scores on the Doors" hygiene ratings of the entire United Kingdom. In a recent report, Which? Magazine rated Bexley as the worst performing borough in the whole of the country, and within Bexley, Erith comes out the bottom performing of all – a total of nine food outlets rated a 0 out of 5 stars for food hygiene. I keep a close watch on these establishments, and not one of them has been closed down, even though they pose a clear and real threat to public health. The claims made in the article are utter, provable fiction. The Bexley Magazine is publishing utter rubbish – the publication is nothing more than a propaganda sheet for the council, and has scant regard for the realities of life in the borough. You can see a league table of worst offenders that was published by Which? below.

Also in the same edition, there is an article about the Bexleyheath street revitalisation scheme – again it puts a very sunny and positive spin on something that shop owners, motorists  and pedestrians have found to be a really bad move. You can read a detailed analysis of the situation with major changes being made to both the road and pavements in Bexleyheath Broadway and also in Sidcup High Street on the Bexley is Bonkers blog here. Suffice to say that the reception of the changes made to the environment in both local towns has not met with the praise that the article would have you believe; quite the contrary, it would seem that the council’s Highways Department are actually doing their level best to ruin both shopping streets, not least by making it very difficult for road users and pedestrians alike to tell where the road ends and the pavement begins. This might be “modern” and something that the council can submit for design awards, but the public find it confusing and potentially very dangerous – especially for those who are mobility and / or sight impaired. I imagine that most people who read Bexley Magazine are aware of what a blatant propaganda sheet the publication is, but I still find it remarkable at how blatantly Bexley Council use it to beat their own drum and as a PR tool. I am pretty sure that using local publications for party political benefit is more than a touch on the dodgy side. Maybe a reader can cast some light on this? Comment in the box below, or email me at hugh.neal@gmail.com.

On Friday the press, both national and local were agog with the news that Kate Bush is putting on a series of live shows at Hammersmith Odeon this summer. I know it is not called Hammersmith Odeon any more, but the stupidly monickered Eventim Apollo, but that does not remove the fact that it IS Hammersmith Odeon still to many of us; I digress. Along with many other people, I will be applying for tickets for one of the shows, though I think the chances of being successful are vanishingly small. One thing that does irritate me is how so many press articles say that she's originally from Bexleyheath. She's not; she grew up on the Bush Farm in Wickham Street, Welling - you can see the outside of the place by clicking here for the Google Street view of the road. Some of her first gigs were at the "We Anchor in Hope" pub on Shooter's Hill. Below is her video for the 1986 track "Experiment IV" - see how many very young looking stars you can spot. The video was shot on location in what was then the Brook Hospital, also on Shooter's Hill, now long gone of course. 



I had the following message from confidential Maggot Sandwich source, and regular reader Chris:- "I am lucky enough to live in one of the nice roads in Erith, with grass verges and daffodils.  I walk my next door neighbour's dogs for her a couple of times a day, and circle around Park Crescent, Lesney Park and Lesney Park Road.    I take great care to scoop up after my neighbour's dogs and either put it in one of the three designated bins I pass, or bring the poo bags home to put in the dustbin.  Now this is what puzzles and enrages me:   Some inconsiderate antisocial moron apparently scoops up their dog's poo and then just throws the plastic bag down on the ground.  Several remnants of these bags can be seen in the hedge of Christchurch School (formerly Lesney Park Primary) where the hedge runs along part of Park Crescent, and also in Lesney Park Road (across the road from No 13).  Last week there was one thrown on the grass verge a few doors down from my house.  To top it all, when tidying up the hedge in front of my house in Park Crescent, what did I discover but another three or four bags of doggy poo.  I cleared it away but another doggy poo bag appeared, so I have erected a sign asking the anti-social person to desist.  It seems to have worked so far. This behaviour is totally inexplicable to me.  It's bad enough leaving dogs' poo behind, but to scoop it up into a plastic doggy bag and then not bother to dispose of it responsibly (especially when there are three bins in the immediate area) just makes me so cross.  Whether it is just one person doing it, or whether it is a wider problem, I just don't know".

"I am attaching a photo I took this morning (see above - click for a larger view if you really must) of the assorted doggy poo bags left at the spot across the road from 13 Lesney Park Road mentioned above.  They will take quite some time to biodegrade on their own". If you have any information about who is dumping bags of dog poo, please let me know, and I will speak to Erith Safer Neighbourhood Police team about the matter. You can Email me at hugh.neal@gmail.com.

Regular readers may recall that I had serious issues with the previous News Shopper journalist that wrote under the pseudonym of “The PubSpy”- until a few months ago, the writer was abusive, vicious and needlessly nasty when they found a hostelry that did not meet their standards. Fortunately the reviewer was changed for someone with a more moderate and even handed writing style and outlook. This week PubSpy reviews the Volunteer – a pub located in Church Road, Bexleyheath. I have to say that the review of the pub completely coincided with my own experiences of the place. I visited it a while back with a couple of friends, and found it to be the most unwelcoming “Locals” pub that I have ever darkened the doorstep of. Poorly served, on the turn beer, surly bar staff and clientele who would not look out of place on “Wanted” posters, many of whom looked like they would welcome the opportunity to kick off a fight.  My party did not stay long, as we could metaphorically feel eyes staring at the backs of our heads. It would appear that our experiences were  not unusual for the Volunteer. PubSpy found exactly the same when they visited the place. You can read the review here. The place reminded me strongly of the infamous scene in “An American Werewolf in London” when the two tourists enter the Slaughtered Lamb pub and  silence falls over the place. Not a pleasant experience, and I will not be visiting the Volunteer again. PubSpy and I are in complete agreement on the place. Avoid. I notice that many of the comments on the article say how wonderful the pub is, and how the reviewer has got it wrong. I strongly suspect that most, if not all of the feedback has been submitted by the publican and his cadre of local cronies.

On a lighter note, As I have previously written, after the end of the Erith based tram service, which had its base in Walnut Tree Road between 1908 and 1935; the route was then replaced with trolley buses, which used the same roof mounted pantograph type electrical pickup to connect to the overhead power network. The main two routes which ran through Erith were the 698, which was introduced in 1935, which ran between Woolwich and Bexleyheath via Plumstead, Abbey Wood, Bexley Road, Erith Road, and terminated in Mayplace Road. The journey from one end of the route to the other took an average of 43 minutes to cover the distance of 16.7 miles. Trolley buses ran every 5-6 minutes, so it was a pretty regular service. The second route ran only on Sundays and Bank Holidays, and was called the 694, which connected the Woolwich Ferry to Erith via stops at Plumstead, Wickham Lane, Welling and Bexleyheath. This service ran until May 1944 when it was discontinued. The main 698 route was in service until March 1959, when it was replaced with a conventional bus service. Regular Maggot Sandwich reader Dana Whiffen, who is publicity officer for the East Kent Trolleybus Group (who have many members in the local area), has sent me the following article which will no doubt be of great interest to the transport enthusiasts that read the blog:- "Trolleybus 704 (above) was purchased new in May 1945 registration number DKY 704 by Bradford City Transport. It ran in its familiar light blue livery and at the end of 1959 it was upgraded and modernised at East Lancashire Coachbuilders, when the staircase was moved from the rear to behind the drivers cab as well as the fitting of platform doors, and heating coils on both lower and upper decks offering passengers a warmer and more comfortable ride. When most other transport companies had removed Trolleybuses from their running stock in the sixties, Bradford carried on and ended up being the last city to run them with 704 continuing for 26 years service until November 1971 and the final Trolley Buses running to 26th March 1972 when thousands came to say goodbye and a special last edition was printed by the post office. Back in the 60’s several preservation groups had been set-up recognising that they needed to preserve their areas Trolleybuses as they were taken out of service. When the last buses came out of service with Bournemouth and then Bradford transport, these groups moved to acquire some of these last trolley buses for either restoration or parts. 704 was purchased privately and spent time at several locations awaiting restoration before being purchased by several members of Cardiff Trolley Bus Project who had intended to repaint it in Llanelly colours. Over the following years volunteers concentrated their efforts on restoring Welsh Trolley Buses 243 and 262 and 704 cut a lonely figure in the corner of their barn/site, which was located between Cardiff and Newport. The space where 704 was sitting had become needed and the projects members had thought of selling 704 for scrap, meanwhile far away in Kent preservationists from The East Kent Railway (EKR) at Shepherdswell had started to look for a double-decker bus to add to the sites attractions and had spotted 704 for sale (see the photo above - click for a larger view). Four of the members went to see it in late summer 2013 and they liked what they saw although recognising that there was a lot of work needed to restore this bus,  they reached an agreement with The Cardiff Group who were happy to see it saved and be able to re-use the room it had taken up. So in October 2013 it was towed to EKR’s site and the East Kent Trolleybus Group (EKTG) was born with 704 possibly becoming the first trolleybus to grace East Kent. The group are now looking for new members and with these membership funds hope to restore 704 to its former glory. Once on site their first aims were to purchase a unit to store all the parts acquired for the bus, and to make the bus waterproof by boarding up broken windows whilst replacements were sought as well as putting it under cover while the work is taking place. This would prevent any further deterioration as well as enabling volunteers to work on it during wet weather. Next year the bus will be 70 and hopefully by then it will be restored to full splendour and be part of celebrations of its many years of service and epic journey of survival. From Bradford to Cardiff to its new home at Shepherdswell near Dover this is a remarkable story of a superb bus. Apart from new members and volunteers they are now seeking parts and also getting advice from other trolleybus preservationists such as those at Cardiff. Once restored it is hoped that the bus can be taken to certain nearby events to promote both the East Kent Trolleybus Group and the East Kent Railway, as well as being an added attraction and possible viewing point for the Railway". Fascinating stuff. If you would like to know more about the East Kent Trolleybus Group, you can Email Dana Whiffen by clicking here.

The end video this week is a full length, made for TV movie called "Rewind". It was meant to be the pilot for a full TV series, but the American networks did not pick it up. I find this strange, as it is much better than a lot of series that have gone into full production. Sure, the script could do with some polish in places, but overall I see far worse on telly every week. Judge for yourself. "Rewind" features a team of scientists, historians and military personnel who travel back in time to prevent events occurring that result in catastrophic events in the present. It is a bit like an updated and more intelligent version of "The Time Tunnel". See what you think, and feel free to leave a comment below.

Poppies in the Riverside Gardens.

The photo above shows Erith Riverside Gardens at about quarter to five last Friday afternoon. The gardens are looking a little bleak and unloved at the moment, due to the wintery weather and huge amounts of rain that has fallen in the last couple of months. Garry "Tadge" Taylor, the chap behind the annual Erith Riverside Festival has come up with an original and very creative idea to commemorate the forthcoming centenary of the start of World War One. Tadge is recruiting a small band of volunteers (myself included) to help plant poppy seeds in the Riverside Gardens flower beds, so that later in the year the whole garden will be a sea of red poppies. Bexley Council had not planned to carry out anything to commemorate the centenary; it takes local residents to come up with ideas for such undertakings. The council once again show a shocking lack of both imagination and innovation.

James Watt Way, the road that runs around the outside of Morrison’s car park is never quiet for long. Recently a group of scrotes has taken to riding illegal, unlicenced and uninsured quad bikes in the road, pulling wheelies, setting up jumps made from old pallets in the middle of the road, and generally being antisocial. The Police are aware of the matter, but actually catching the criminals in the act will prove challenging. It will not take long for one of the bikers to collide with one of the scrap vans that patrol the road like vultures, waiting for people to illegally fly tip old fridges and the like round at the recycling centre at the end of the road, round by the back of Morrison’s.  On top of this, adjacent to the recycling facility, the patch of waste land that used to house a couple of traveller ponies, but has been empty for the last few months is now back in use. I am quite surprised that a new pony is now in residence on the little patch of land; I thought that once the last couple went, that would be the end of the matter. Ponies are now commercially worthless – an adult will now only fetch around £5 in a sale, as they are now regarded as nothing other than walking pet food. This is one of the reasons why so many ponies are being found abandoned on common land and in parks, not to mention the appalling way some have been dumped locally, where they were found dying or dead, as was recently reported by the News Shopper.

You may recall that last week I asked if any Maggot Sandwich readers had memories of Hedley Mitchells. I go the following very evocative reply from a lady called Pam:- “I lived in Avenue Road Erith from the age of 1 until 22 when I got married and now live on Bexleyheath / Crayford border. I am now 66.  I loved the town with all the little shops and as a school girl worked in a hairdressers up by the Post Office called Veronique as a Saturday girl for 3 years. I used to go into Mitchells with my mum, and yes, it was on a par with John Lewis. Must say the Ladies Toilets were very posh, had liquid soap which I had never seen before.  I also went to the Dancing School over Burtons and learnt Ballroom and the Jive .  Bill Hayley's Rock around the Clock was the record for that Jive.  I think I was about 8/9.  I think the lady teacher was called Lesley but I could be wrong, she was tall, slim and her hair was in a French Pleat, very elegant. My silver dancing shoes were bought in Mitchells and a while later as I was going to a Dance I was bought a rather pretty but expensive dress to wear from Mitchells. As everyone says, Erith was ruined when they built the concrete jungle, it was a lovely place to shop, catered for everyone and everything.  Erith was such a big part of my life when I was growing up. Pre school years I went every day except Sunday because our mum shopped on a daily basis for fresh meat and veg for our dinners. There was a lovely large man called George who had a fish stall on a Friday at the side of Burtons and the large blocks of ice fascinated me on his display, so he used to cut me off a chunk, wrap it in newspaper for me to take home. So many lovely memories from my childhood. School friends and I often go down memory lane about the Erith we loved”. Thanks very much Pam – a fascinating recollection of a much missed time.

The protests against the KFC Erith drive through application to effectively open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week continue. It would appear that the complaint web page that I directed people to in good faith is incorrect; the messages that were left on the Bexley Council Licensing Complaints Website have not been recorded.  Councillor Chris Ball has kindly been investigating. Instead complaints about the fast food drive through extending the hours it opens can be addressed to licensing.office@bexley.gov.uk Best to act quickly if you wish your views to be known. Objections to KFC’s request for vastly longer opening hours must be made before the end of the month. I logged an Email of protest, and got a very full and detailed response from the Council. Part of their Email reads as follows:- “You should be aware that the licensing process requires the Council to provide the applicant with the details of any representations received. This means that a copy of your correspondence will be sent to the applicant.  Furthermore, a copy of your correspondence will be included in the report prepared for the licensing hearing.  This report is a public document. You will be invited to attend the licensing hearing to support your representations, at which time a copy of the Council’s procedure and hearing regulations will be sent to you. If, however, you require these documents sooner please contact me and I will be happy to provide you with copies straight away. You may represent yourself at the licensing hearing alternatively, you may wish to be represented by a Solicitor or Barrister or any other person. Your local Ward Councillor may be prepared to represent you, but you will have to contact them direct to enquire. If you do not know who your Ward Councillors are, you can contact this office and we will supply you with the names and contact details. Alternatively, you can find out who your local Ward Councillors are by visiting www.bexley.gov.uk If you are making representations on behalf of a "body". i.e. representing persons who live or are involved in businesses within the vicinity of the premises, you may be asked by the applicant or Sub-Committee for the following information: The area covered by the body and the detail of the members who live or have a business in the vicinity of the applicant premises; and Evidence that the representations reflect the view of the members of the body. This may be achieved by having available a copy of the minutes of the meeting of the body where it's members decided to make representations to the application. However, it is a matter for the body to decide how it would best respond to any request for this information. Please be aware that should your representations be challenged, and you do not have the information available, there is a risk that your representations will not carry the maximum weight, or in certain circumstances not taken into account. In preparing for the licensing hearing you should bear in mind that all decisions made by the Sub Committee have, as a matter of law, to be based upon one or more of the licensing objectives, which are the prevention of crime and disorder, public safety, the prevention of public nuisance and the protection of children from harm. Therefore for the evidence you give at the meeting to have an influence upon the Sub -Committee it must relate to one of these objectives, and can only relate to matters you have raised in your letter making representations.  In other words if your letter is about noise from the premises you cannot at the hearing give evidence about the danger to which children may be exposed to at the premises”. This is all very informative stuff, but even reading it back now, it is worded in a way that could be construed as somewhat hostile to the complainant. I fully appreciate that the council need to operate in a way that is seen as being fair and even handed to all parties involved in the dispute, but for a private individual making a one – off objection, it does seem quite an intimidating and onerous process. Time will tell how this will all pan out, but I suspect that KFC will have an uphill battle to obtain round the clock opening rights, located as it is, opposite Sherwood House, a residential care home and sheltered housing scheme for elderly and disabled people, and surrounded on three sides by residential property, plus the vociferous protests of long time Erith residents.

Last Tuesday Mayor Boris announced that a project to link the CCTV cameras that form part of the London congestion charge and low emission zone monitoring system to the Police Automatic Number Plate Recognition system (ANPR). The ANPR system does what it says on the tin – car number plates are automatically identified, recorded and checked against a database of known criminals and stolen cars. The system is going under a period of public consultation as to how appropriate a “joined up” system of ANPR enabled cameras over the whole of Greater London would be. The Police already have access to a number of ANPR cameras, principally those which form a cordon around central London, and those on the M25 and A2 which already monitor all vehicles travelling on those roads. Adding the transport for London Cameras to the ANPR system will bring the total number of “intelligent” cameras to 1,300 – effectively tripling the number in service. Boris and the Police both give a great amount of exposure to a number of crimes that were solved by the use of ANPR evidence. Some examples they quoted were:- “The rape of a 14 year old girl, in June 2013. She alleged that she was raped by two males in their twenties. The vehicle registration number was placed on the ANPR system and four hours later, the vehicle was stopped by uniform officers and both suspects arrested. In June 2013, the ANPR system was instrumental in locating a vehicle belonging to a suspect who had allegedly assaulted his partner. After making enquiries to locate the suspect, his vehicle details were placed onto the Police National Computer in order that he could be arrested. Within 5 hours, the suspect was stopped in another police area and arrested for the offence. A male was slashed across the chest with a Stanley knife in Ilford during an argument about money. The suspect was believed to live in Manchester but his address was not known. His vehicle registration number was placed onto the Police National Computer system and just over a day later, the suspect was stopped and arrested for the offence by officers from Greater Manchester Police after his vehicle triggered an ANPR camera. At court he was convicted and received a 40 month sentence. A known burglar whose vehicle details were put into the ANPR system was stopped with two other males in Romford. One of three occupants was found to be wanted for a drugs offence, he was arrested remanded in custody and subsequently found guilty at court.” This is excellent stuff, but unfortunately it does not address the flipside of the issue. ANPR cameras don’t like rain, road spray, fog or dirt, as this impedes their ability to recognise number plates. There are already a slow but steady stream of “false positives” where innocent drivers are targeted by traffic police for offences they did not commit – and the default presumption is guilt; you have to prove yourself innocent, rather than the Police or courts prove you guilty. There was a case featured in the Telegraph last Saturday where a man was accused of some traffic offences after being caught by an ANPR camera on the M25 in Kent. The chap had proof that he was actually visiting his wife in hospital in Surrey at the time. It transpired that his car number plate had been cloned by crooks – something that is increasingly common nowadays. The more ANPR cameras are deployed, the more the real crooks are going to find ways to circumvent them, and in the meantime innocent members of the public may be presumed guilty of crimes they did not commit. It is a difficult balance – keeping the public safe versus accusations of bringing about a Police state. ANPR cameras are also – with suitable software, capable of facial recognition, though again, it is relatively easy to fool the system – some facial recognition applications can be fooled by the simple expedient of tilting the head at an angle of fifteen degrees or greater from the vertical. Both ANPR and facial recognition technologies are not as mature and error resistant as the Mayor and the Met would have the public believe. I am not going to bang on about the implications to civil liberties that such technologies may bring; time and again it has been shown that if a new technology enables something to happen, it will, whatever the philosophical or moral reservations the public may have. The whole NSA / GCHQ monitoring saga is a good recent example – if something can technically be done, it will be done, irrespective of legality / morality.

The photo above shows the old Cannon and Gaze flour mill on Erith High Street; it was taken in (I think) around 1934, as the mill was demolished shortly thereafter in 1936, and in time the Erith Riverside Gardens were constructed on the site. The mill ground flour mainly from imported American wheat, which arrived by freighter - having a river side mill made a lot of sense at the time. I don't think any part of Erith has changed more over the years. Whilst the general feeling is that the 1960's concrete town centre redevelopment was a step backwards from the Victorian old town, I think that nobody would argue that the modern Erith Riverside Gardens is a vast improvement to the heavy industrial scene in the photo above. In fact, if you scroll back up to the contemporary photo of the Riverside Gardens which I took on Friday afternoon, you will see that it was taken from as close as I could get to the same position as the 1934 black and white photo above. The old flour mill was located where the open grass area in the Gardens is now. The road layout has changed slightly, and of course the row of shops to the right of the photo are no longer there, but nevertheless it gives you a pretty good impression of the changes that have taken place over the years. Who says I don't plan the Maggot Sandwich?

Back in October 2012 I originally wrote that London Resort Company Holdings (LRCH) propose to build the World’s fourth largest theme park for Paramount Entertainment on the site of the derelict quarry site at Swanscombe. This has got to be excellent news for the entire region, if not the country as a whole. The proposed site features Europe’s largest indoor water park, theatres, hotels, restaurants and all manner of themed rides, all in a site spread over approximately 872 acres. The bill (at least now, but it is bound to escalate) is estimated to be in the region of £2 billion, and the park will employ 27,000 people, many of them from the local area. If this plan gets the green light (and I seriously doubt it won’t) it will be a massive boost for the economy for the whole of North Kent and South East London. Much of this story is detailed on the News Shopper website here. What amazes me (quite apart from my usual misgivings about the quality of talkbacks and lack of moderation on their website) is the naysayers who are already moaning about the increase in traffic and likely disruption that the construction work will undoubtedly cause. These small minded people seem to completely miss the fact that the park will be a complete economic game changer for an area that will stretch from around Woolwich to down well past Gillingham. Once the park is built and running there will be all sorts of permanent jobs needed to keep the place ticking over – electricians, security, engineers, cleaners, administrators – the list is as long as your imagination. Ironically the brown field site in Swanscombe was the location of the destruction of Top Gear’s old “reasonably priced car” when local company Erith Construction blew up the old LaFarge factory chimney onto the hapless vehicle, as part of a stunt for the show. Since the announcement of the theme park project, much has happened, though until this week it has all been kept very quiet by those involved. Independent economic think tank The Centre for London has published a paper which proposes the construction of a new town near Ebbsfleet which would be of a similar size to Milton Keynes, and as such, the first new town in Britain since the late 1960’s. The proposed new town would have around 35,000 houses and flats, and would be linked to the high speed rail link to enable commuting into central London in around twenty minutes or so. The whole new town would be close to the Paramount theme park, and I would surmise that a fair percentage of the staff would live locally. The proposal document also strongly recommends the formation of a development corporation that would resolve any conflicting planning issues, fund the required upgrades to local infrastructure, and possibly most importantly having the power to build new bridges or tunnels across the lower stretches of the River Thames; at present many economists say that the whole North Kent area is being held back financially by the fact that there is only the Dartford River Crossing East of Tower Bridge, and nothing whatsoever further down river. A new town to accompany the giant theme park would have other benefits; the hard pressed housing market in South East London and North Kent would get a boost, and finally the Thames Estuary would get the development that has been promised for at least the last twenty years. The area also has the benefit that it is mostly brown field, rather than green belt land, and the report also identifies that a new town in North Kent would be far more attractive to prospective new residents than a garden city or development on green belt land in another part of the country. For better or worse, London and the South East of England are the most attractive parts of the United Kingdom, and it is where people want to live.

Enough already; some time ago I wrote a piece about LENR (Low Energy Nuclear Reaction) and how it possibly might be a revolution in the way were generate power. LENR used to be called “Cold Fusion” in the late 1980’s / early 1990’s, and the public perception is now that it was a discredited field, and basically all of the claims made by researchers about LENR and the ability to generate boundless amounts of clean, cheap energy were little more than outright fraud. The court of public opinion – fuelled mainly by the tabloid press – was keen to expose the researchers as confidence tricksters. More sober minds have revisited the experiments carried out all of those years ago, and the results astonished them. Over the last five or so years, LENR technology has gone from being regarded as at best a fringe area of esoteric science to now developing slowly in the mainstream. An Italian inventor called Andrea Rossi has developed a generator which he calls the E-Cat (short for Energy Catalyser) which it has been claimed generates hundreds of kilowatts of power from a generator roughly the size of a shipping container. Rossi has gone into partnership with an undisclosed U.S industrial partner, who has insisted on a comprehensive confidentiality agreement, effectively muzzling Rossi from talking to the press. Others have been less secretive about their research – an American company called Brillouin Energy Corporation have signed a multimillion dollar licensing deal with a South Korean manufacturing company; they intend to manufacture LENR reactors to replace existing gas or coal powered boilers in conventional power stations. Bob George, the CEO of Brillouin, says that the new LENR reactors will produce electricity at a cost of two U.S cents per kilowatt hour – about a third of the cost of generating power using advanced, high efficiency gas boilers, and more importantly with no greenhouse gas emissions. The big breakthrough that Brillouin claim is that they have found a way to control the reaction process - effectively giving them the ability to "throttle up and down" the reaction on command - something that at present no other experimenter has been able to do - you can see a video of a lab experiment that shows this here. On top of this, the U.S Government is now funding LENR research in a big way.  The U.S Department of Energy is now accepting funding requests from organisations undertaking LENR research, in the hope that they can then commercialise the results. I still have some doubts; anything that sounds too good to be true generally is. If LENR technology is as good as the proponents say, it will still take a lot of testing and engineering development to make it commercially viable, and more importantly safe. The public detest any mention of “radiation” and would be understandably suspicious of a technology that was dismissed as fraudulent within many lifetimes. Having said that, the early aeronautic research work carried out by Hiram Maxim, and later the Wright brothers was poo – pooed by many at the time as being as an impossible dream, yet today our skies are filled by aeroplanes. We may be on the verge of a clean, cheap and safe energy revolution – I sincerely hope so.

I have not featured a music video for many weeks; I thought I would remedy that now. Below is the video for the latest track from a group called “Sound of Contact”. If the singer in the video looks vaguely familiar, and his voice sounds very familiar, that is with good reason. His name is Simon Collins, and he’s the son of Phil Collins. I bought Sound of Contact’s debut album “Dimensionaut” last year, and I am very fond of it. The band sound like Genesis circa 1976, if they had been produced by Steve Hillage or Dave Brock using today's state of the art recording techniques. Not everybody’s cup of tea, I guess, but if you like melodic, slightly spacey prog rock, you are in for a bit of a treat. The track below is called “Pale Blue Dot”. Give it a watch; you might even like it. Feel free to leave a comment below, or Email me at hugh.neal@gmail.com.